CHANT launch at the Welsh Assembly 22/11/06
Gibbons Ducks and Runs in Face of Community Hospital Protest!
A large and determined crowd gathered from all over Wales to attend the launch of the Welsh arm of CHANT (Community Hospitals Acting Nationally Together) outside the National Assembly in Cardiff today. They jeered the sudden "diary confusion" of Health Minister Brian Gibbons, who found he had to be somewhere else urgently.
The 400+ strong rally was led by doctors and staff from Bronllys Hospital, who
had pushed a hospital bed 52 miles up and over the Beacons and down to the capital
to attend the launch. The new Welsh support group for Community Hospitals (CHANT
Cymru??) was launched by AM’s Mark Isherwood and Kirsty Williams, and featuring
speakers from many community hospitals under threat across Wales.
Spotted in the Assembly building restaurant before Health questions, Dr Gibbons (it seemed he was in the building after all – how strange!) was booed by hospital supporters as he came down the steps with a lady companion only to spot the crowd of protesters standing outside in the rain.
"He just turned and scuttled back into an office," said one. "He looked really rattled!" Rhodri Morgan put a better face on matters, meeting a group of town mayors and councillors voiced their anxieties to him in an impromptu session.
Some members later went into the public gallery to watch further Gibbons discomfort as he failed to come up with an answer to either Nick Bourne's question as to why the Labour administration wasn't supporting Welsh CHANT (despite supporting the organisation in England), and Kirsty Williams' repeated invitation to meet medical professionals in Powys, where the LHB has lost the confidence of its GP’s.
Report from GG (mid) - many thanks
Pictures from CB (mid) - many thanks
Record
of Assembly Proceedings
Movie - Mark Isherwood AM (1MB wmv
- Right click and "save target as" or just double click)